Jon Jones Thinks It Was “Unprofessional” By The UFC To Announce Gustaffson Fight Prematurely

During the night of UFC 173, it was announced by the company that Jon Jones would be defending the UFC light heavyweight title in a rematch against Alexander Gustaffson at UFC 177 at the end of August. The champion stated that his preference though was to fight Daniel Cormier. About ten days ago, Jones did sign the bout agreement to face Gustafsson on September 27 at UFC 178.

Jones appeared on “The MMA Hour” earlier today to promote the new EA Sports UFC video game and the topic of the fight came up. During the interview, Jones said he didn’t even know the UFC had booked the August date until he read it online.

“I just kind of identified it with being a like strong-arm technique on their part, trying to get fans pushing for a fight and prematurely announcing a fight,” Jones said. “It’s not that I haven’t signed a contract, I hadn’t even heard that date before. I thought it was unprofessional, I thought it was a bullying technique, bully style, I don’t know what it was. But it is what it is.”

At the end of the day, the fight was made and Jones likes where the relationship is at with the UFC.

“I think we are in a very healthy spot,” Jones said. “We actually talked about being in contact more often and things like that. Instead of going through my managers to talk about things, we’ll have a more open line of communication. I’m really happy about that. I feel like we’re in a very open and honest place right now.”

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About Steve Muehlhausen

Steven was a featured UFC columnist for Bleacher Report and a writer for MMASucka.com. He was also the host of the MMA show "The Fight Club Chicago" which aired for three years at various websites. You can email Steve at stevemuehlhausen@yahoo.com.